Today, I’d like to open with a quote from Gaard’s Ecofeminism on the Wing: Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations, she states that “we live in paradoxical times. We don’t have good choices, choices that allow us to live in this culture and maintain our relationship with other animals without violating their integrity.” I do believe there is a huge amount of truth to this quote. When thinking about veganism, it is really important to keep this philosophy in mind. Many vegans that people imagine when they think of vegans, are hardcore people that never even look at meat. When I think of a vegan, I think of my roommate. My roommate embodies what Curtin defines as ‘moral veganism.’ Deane Curtin explains this idea in his article, Contextual Moral Vegetarianism where she states “The injunction to care, considered as an issue of moral and political development, should be understood to include the injunction to eliminate needless suffering wherever possible, and particularly the suffering of those whose suffering is conceptually connected to one’s own.” Being a vegan means understanding the suffering that animals face, and aligning your life with that suffering to a point that you make huge sacrifices to support them.
That’s right, you CAN be vegan and a reasonable person. This, at first, was a crazy idea to me. What’s the point in being vegan if you aren’t going to follow the rules? It’s all about being a reasonable person and still making small choices when you can to help the environment. Sometimes you’re in a situation where there are no vegan options, or you order food without animal byproducts and the Burger King worker puts the mayonnaise on the Impossible Whopper anyway. The most important part of being vegan, as I see it, is reducing waste, and that means breaking the rules rather than complaining and ordering a new Impossible Whopper.
Thinking about these ideas in compilation with gender, we get an article like Meat Heads: New Study Focuses on How Meat Consumption Alters Men’s Self-Perceived Levels of Masculinity, by Zoe Eisenberg. This article discusses the way that eating has been gendered, and how the vegan diet appeals more to women, as meats are typically branded as masculine. An example of this is through We can see an example of this in Bloomberg’s recent ad against 
Trump. This ad is hilarious. Bloomberg is a disgusting excuse for a person, and this billboard highlights that through the absurd idea that the way you eat your steak reflects on masculinity. These two men are both terrible, without a doubt. They remind me of the image that was chosen for this week, of a man cutting up some meat for some more men, presumably. There isn’t a huge amount of substance to this image, but it does create a disconnect between the consumer and the animals that were killed to result in that meal. Two huge examples of gendered food are meat for masculinity, and plant based foods for femininity. This is arbitrary and stupid, but can be seen in media, like this Bloomberg ad.
I agree with you that there is a truth in the Curtin quote you start your blog with. It seems pretty clear that it is hard to have a relationship without violating their integrity. It is pretty obvious that we are not allowing animals to keep their integrity when we are killing them for food. Even though we may love our pets and consider them part of the family. Our family pets may not face as much violence as a cow or pig that becomes foor will. Yet for our pets we still violate their integrity. We do not allow any animals to live their honest and true life for the most part. When we have pets we are constantly controlling their actions, when they eat, when they go out to use the bathroom, and more. I enjoyed how you brought in a personal connection to veganism by mentioning your roommate. I also have a few friends who are now vegan. I constantly support their endeavors and think it is quite amazing they have made this commitment. Being a vegan or even vegetarian shows a large amount of moral care for nonhuman animals. It shows compassion for animals, as well as a want to end or lessen the suffering and oppression that they face. I also enjoyed the image of the billboard you tied into the article regarding meat and masculinity. It is quite outrageous and barbaric that a candidate to become our next president is trying to win us over by claiming he likes his steak medium rare. This would personally turn me away from voting for him and I believe many others especially vegetarians and vegans would agree. I believe this image of the billboard can tie into gendered foods—meat representing masculinity. It is clearly saying that we should not support Trump because he eats BURNT meat, but we should vote for Bloomberg because he likes his meat raw. I think their immature behavior is enough to show how much they seem to lack “masculinity.”
Peter,
let me begin by applauding you for your commentary on the Bloomberg ad. I have no complaints there. They were certainly made for each other. Moreover, I want to emphasize your take on the Gaard reading. I think its important that you mention that there is no euphoric veganism- at least not one that is easily attainable. Living here on campus at UMD, I strive to limit my meat consumption but it proves increasingly difficult with the lack of alternatives. Gaard also said; “Many people in first-world nations can choose healthy vegetarian diets, thereby reducing the suffering of other animal species confined in factory farming operations, and reducing our own suffering of ill health as well.” Although this would be ideal, I am grateful that moral veganism sees the efforts in my intentions. I am not about to starve myself because I am sick of constantly eating a meatless salad. I am going to do what I can and that’s all I can do. Gaard points out that as long as we live in a society where meat consumption is so large and problematic, nothing is wrong with working within the social constructs that confine us. However, there is a hope that one day we can eradicate our desire for meat along with its gender associations.
Hi Peter,
First of all let me highlight my favorite quote “ This ad is hilarious. Bloomberg is a disgusting excuse for a person, and this billboard highlights that through the absurd idea that the way you eat your steak reflects on masculinity. These two men are both terrible, without a doubt.” Thank you so much for this because I totally agree it’s so funny because I read this as people who eat meat are racist. Because trump is racist and a complete imbecile. This ad itself will make me want to stop eating meat all at once. I like for this blog you switched the way you responded. You were very passionate. You should allow yourself to express your emotion through your blogs, everything you said made sense to me and I even questioned if my blog was scripted correctly although I believe I seen this whole post differently from mine I think I was more on the aspect that women and men genderfy foods.
xoxo Gossip girl